How and Why Did the Afghan Army Fall so Quickly to The Taliban?

[Metric Mouse]

Nobody was fooled. The Pentagon may have publicly overestimated the time it would take, but they were saying when they left it looks like the Taliban will eventually take Kabul. Biden knew it was going to be a mess (if not how much so), and it was still more important to get America out of that mess all the same.

He couldn't have known. He promised it wouldn't be. He wouldn't lie.

 

[sanman]

Which is why training and equipping local militias would have been a better choice in Afghanistan rather than a national military in which most people had no loyalty to.

I'll agree with you there. The old Northern Alliance had some fighting resilience against the Taliban, even though they were eventually out-muscled by the superior backing that Taliban got from Pakistan and its military intelligence.
We're now seeing a stand being taken against Taliban from the Panjshir, which was a key bastion of the Northern Aliiance.

That is why the Shia militias in Iraq did better than the Iraqis Army fighting ISIS. It is why Hezbollah did a better job fighting the Israel occupation of south Lebanon than the Lebanese military and why the Kurds have done better than the Iraq or Syrian militaries fighting ISIS despite being equipped with poorer equipment

The Shias of Afghanistan have an especially strong reason to fight, since they were subjected to terrible massacres by the Taliban in the past.

 

[uptower]

He couldn't have known. He promised it wouldn't be. He wouldn't lie.

Though in terms of "honesty" Biden is many light years ahead of his most recent predecessor, he's still a politician and I still think he oversold it. Even I won't give him too much credit.

But nobody has been snookered by the Taliban here. The plan was to pull out and cut losses, no matter who takes over.

 

[dockside]

The Afghan army didn't care about democracy or Afghanistan as a nation.

All they care about is their tribal affiliation.

There was nothing for them to fight for. Certainly nothing to die for.

So they laid down their guns, dressed in civilian clothes and quietly slipped into the crowd.


.

The creation of the Afghan army was a jobs program. The very poor in this country saw an opportunity to live a slightly better life. When that opportunity disappeared, the "soldiers" went back to their tribes. They have no idea what "fighting for your country" really means. Why should they?

 

[Phys251]

Everything that righties accuse others of doing, they do or enable themselves. Every single thing.

Example:

The way it was executed is the problem. You are deflecting and its obvious you are deflecting.

 

[natman]

Uh, nobody is speaking up against withdrawal now.

But there is little doubt that the Trump negotiations gave notice to the Taliban, and handed them over a year’s worth of planning time.

They seem to have used the time rather better than Biden did.

 

[Tbird19482]

Everything that righties accuse others of doing, they do or enable themselves. Every single thing.

Example:

What their DON'T do as I do do as I want you to do
I can do it but DON'T you do the same thing
It is their MO and has been for years
Have a nice evening

 

[yankintx]

All you wokesters are doing is reading from the same CYA talking points. None of you ever spoke up against this withdrawal or blamed it on Trump before. You simply didn't care.
It's only when your Sleep Joe & Co screw it up royally, that you're suddenly fearful for Joe's reign, and are now flooding forth to retroactively claim that it was all Trump's fault.
And that's your same tired recipe for every crisis that engulfs Biden -- just blame it all on the previous govt.
Why did you side even run for POTUS this time, if your only plan was to reflexively blame anything and everything on Trump? Obama did the same to Bush.
Trump himself at least spent less time deflecting, and more effort actually solving the situations he was faced with, even thinking out-of-the-box.

Its Don's plan, you should approve.

 

[OpportunityCost]

Everything that righties accuse others of doing, they do or enable themselves. Every single thing.

Example:

The execution of the withdrawal was poor and caused multiple political and military issues as well as putting Americans at risk.

 

[sanman]

Its Don's plan, you should approve.

The American people wanted withdrawal -- but not in this half-assed piss-poor way. Why would Trump support handing over equipment to the enemy?
Withdrawing your troops before evacuating the civilians? This is Biden's bungling, but your ilk will never take ownership for anything you do. Because you have no decency.

 

[Jredbaron96]

The American people wanted withdrawal -- but not in this half-assed piss-poor way. Why would Trump support handing over equipment to the enemy?

That was always an inevitability with giving equipment to the ANSF.

We could always have given them jack shit (since it wouldn't have made a difference), but then the complaint would have been "Why didn't we leave them anything to fight the Taliban with?".

 

[yankintx]

The American people wanted withdrawal -- but not in this half-assed piss-poor way. Why would Trump support handing over equipment to the enemy?
Withdrawing your troops before evacuating the civilians? This is Biden's bungling, but your ilk will never take ownership for anything you do. Because you have no decency.

Of course Biden took responsibility. Did you miss that?

 

[sanman]

Of course Biden took responsibility. Did you miss that?

In what way is he actually taking responsibility? Has he fired his bungling national security team? Austin, Milley, Sullivan?
All he did was make some posturing statement for the cameras. That's not taking responsibility.
His statements have frankly been quite disjointed. First he says "aww, that stuff was always going to happen anyway -- it's normal for that to happen"
Then he says "We won't leave until all Americans are brought back"
Now he says "We will leave by the Aug 31 deadline"

I sense something bad is going to happen here. If he plans to stall at the last moment, I'm worried that the Taliban could react badly -- or AlQaeda, ISIS, etc could take full advantage to escalate things opportunistically. That airport could quickly turn into a killzone, unless the US drastically reinforces its military presence in the country -- and that could enrage Taliban.
There are plenty of Americans who are way far out from Kabul, far away from the safety of American military forces.

 

[DerekD]

As others have mentioned, Afghanistan is so tribally based it was a mistake from the word go to do any "nation building" years ago. And I think it was Winston Churchill who realized what a mistake it was to make a country out of Iraq, which is also heavily tribal. I wonder how long that government would last if our 2500 troops left Iraq? However, one of the main reasons for the quick fall/surrender of the Afghan army was how incredibly corrupt the government was. I wasn't aware of how bad it was. Add in all of the commanders simply pocketing the money for food and ammunition meant for the troops and morale, already low, disappeared. When I found that out, it all made sense. Plus the Taliban was throwing money at the tribal chiefs too. Basically a perfect storm. I'll be glad to see us out of there and hope that we can evacuate as many people as we can that want to leave. The Taliban have already shown us what their word means, carrying whips and truncheons beating people outside the airport walls. Their kinder, gentler "reserved" spokesman is just talking up a PR game-more bs. Like he's going to read us bedtime stories about how they're going to treat the women and girls well. Spare me. They are already starting their merciless elimination of the people on their "enemy" lists.

 

[Lursa]

Surrender Theory - the Army that fights together surrenders together?

How and why did the Afghan army fall so quickly to the Taliban?

Patterns of collapse indicate it was the collective result of individual soldiers making rational decisions about their own situations and deciding not to fight

www.timesofisrael.com

This has been explained in other threads, with links to sources discussing how the tribal culture between different factions, including the Afghan army, actually work together using their own MAD.

Maybe someone will post it for you...I didnt save it.

 

[Paradoxical]

I'm sure you would loved for us to stay in there forever, but the predecessor set this path into motion.

Timeline of U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan - FactCheck.org

We lay out many of the key diplomatic decisions, military actions, presidential pronouncements and expert assessments of the withdrawal agreement that ended the U.S. military's 20-year war in Afghanistan.

www.factcheck.org

So, Trump says he would pull out if there and Biden canceled numerous agreements that Trump made but HAD to keep this one? There was no act of Congress. In any event, it is illustrative to see the sleight of hand and dishonesty the left uses to deflect blame. They hope that stupid people will see only that Trump was going to pull out "too" and forget that the bumbling Biden administration had NO plans about how to accomplish it. The posters here just regurgitate MSM talking points.

 

[dirtpoorchris]

That was always an inevitability with giving equipment to the ANSF.

We could always have given them jack shit (since it wouldn't have made a difference), but then the complaint would have been "Why didn't we leave them anything to fight the Taliban with?".

Taliban now has more Blackhawks than Australia.... THANKS TO HIDEN BIDEN.

 

[dirtpoorchris]

Of course Biden took responsibility. Did you miss that?

No he didnt he straight up blamed Trump. He said "I will not pass this war to another President, but this is Trumps fault." Biden didnt own up to crap. (and accidentally admitted hes only going to have 1 term)

 

[dirtpoorchris]

Its Don's plan, you should approve.

Don's plan was to let the Afghan army do the work BUT ALSO LET THEM GROW and USA would go back in and reinforce them as needed. He stated he was going to let the Afghan army start doing its own job but if Taliban takes any land US would go beat them up and get it back. So basically we would be Afghanistans BIG GIANT STICK big brother hiding in the background and only come out as needed while they learn to be independent.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Don's plan was to let the Afghan army do the work BUT ALSO LET THEM GROW and USA would go back in and reinforce them as needed. He stated he was going to let the Afghan army start doing its own job but if Taliban takes any land US would go beat them up and get it back. So basically we would be Afghanistans BIG GIANT STICK big brother hiding in the background and only come out as needed while they learn to be independent.

Assuming that he actually followed through on it, Mr. Trump's "plan" amounted to

"OK, it's your war now, but if there is any chance of taking casualties when American troops will take them for you."​

 

[Jredbaron96]

Taliban now has more Blackhawks than Australia.... THANKS TO HIDEN BIDEN.

They'll be deadlined within a year.

 

[Plasmaball]

It's my theory that the so-called 'Afghan Army' was a bunch of impoverished desperate Afghans, who hitched to us for a free ride. The ride is now over, and they're outta' here!

There was a lot of corruption in that government. I heard the former president skipped town with 160 million in cash

 

[Chomsky]

There was a lot of corruption in that government. I heard the former president skipped town with 160 million in cash

They basically hustled us for a free ride. That seems pretty clear to me!

 

[RetiredUSN]

Everything that righties accuse others of doing, they do or enable themselves. Every single thing.

Example:

And everything lefties accuse others of, they do themselves.

Blah blah blah

 

[Plasmaball]

They basically hustled us for a free ride. That seems pretty clear to me!

Mmmhmmm...I feel bad for those who really wanted a democracy..